In the Texas Observer TPJ's Andrew Wheat exposes a political consultant's shake down of Texas hemp growers.
Read the full story at the Texas Observer.
Read the full story at the Texas Observer.
A new report from Commission Shift and Texans for Public Justice finds that most facilities on the natural gas supply chain have been designated critical. Poor agency record keeping procedures leave questions about which facilities have been granted or denied exceptions to critical infrastructure designation. Confidentiality requirements leave the public in the dark about which facilities will actually be required to be weatherized, while a handful of private companies enjoy special access to regulators and the electricity supply chain map.
Access the new report at Commission Shift.
Read the full story at the Washington Post.
By Tom "Smitty" Smith for the Dallas Morning News
Opinion piece urges consumers to hold officials accountable for failure to require power plant weatherization.
The second in a series of reports called Captive Agency exposes deep conflicts among Texas Railroad Commissioners. The latest report reveals that two thirds of the three current commissioners' campaign war chests were provided by the oil and gas industry. The report takes a deep dive into Commission Chair Wayne Christian’s personal financial statements revealing potential conflicts of interest. The report also details campaign contributions received by the commissioners while deciding particular cases.
The Captive Agency reports propose a number of pro-consumer reforms.
Texas’s top 196 individual and institutional political contributors collectively sunk $259 million into the state’s two-year 2020 election cycle, equivalent to 90 percent of the $289 million that candidates for Texas public offices raised in that period, according to Texas Ethics Commission data. These top contributors gave anywhere from $350,000 to $17 million apiece.